Fixed up a Franchi 48AL

Great work! You'll get plenty more years of service out of it thats for sure. I have three of these Franchi's...two of which have the same engravings on the receiver as yours. They are fantastic and reliable guns. Definately a pleasure to shoot. My two 48's like yours are 1973 guns, and my third one (listed on the EE) is an early 60's model. What year was yours manufatured?

On a side note, most of the Franchi 48's that have had stock issues was caused by long time usage of heavy loads while the friction ring was set in the light load position. Although your repairs likely make the stocks stronger then ever, you may want to experiment on how your gun functions exclusively on the heavy setting even when shooting light loads. I only use my guns with light loads, and exclusively keep the guns in the heavy load setting. Two of my guns will cycle light loads in the heavy setting as long as I put very little amount oil (only Breakfree CLP will work) on the magazine tube and the third gun cycles them when dry. Having the gun in the heavy load setting will prevent the barrel and bolt assembly from crashing hard into the receiver upon recoil. I find that doing this not only reduces the felt recoil, but lightens the hit that usually causes older weakend stocks to give way to cracking. You may want to experiment with you gun to see how this works. The only thing I would caution is using too much oil on the mag tube. These guns are suppose to be run dry, and adding too much oil will reduce the effectiveness of the friction ring all together, and thus, may actually be worse on the stocks. Try running it dry with light loads in the heavy setting and see if the gun cycles. If so...keep running it dry. If you have a failure to eject. add VERY LITTLE oil to the tube and try again. A bit of trial and error will allow you to eventually figure out your specific gun. Once you figure it out.....shoot until your heart is content.
 
Thanks 1963beretta for the tips. I haven't checked the date yet, i do have the Franchi cross reference sheet i just need to look at my serial #. Will look at it tonight.

What kind of light loads are you putting through it (7/8, 1oz?)? I was hoping to use this as my trap/ sporting clay gun this year so the lighter load it can handle the better.
 
I mainly use 1 1/8oz loads for pigeon hunts, but 7/8 oz-1oz loads work as well. Type of ammo also makes a difference in my guns. I have no issues with winchester or federal 1oz loads, but I recently went through a flat of Challenger 1 oz loads and there was the occasional fail to eject. Those challenger loads are pretty crap...I had issues with them in a Beretta and a Browning. One of my 48's seems to like high brass shells better then the cheap low aluminum shells, but that gun has probably 70000 rounds through it, so I forgive her for being a bit of a picky shell eater.

As for finding out the date, you cant do it by serial number, you need to find the date stamp. The date stamp should be at the bottom of the receiver near all the proof stamps and serial number stamp. You will also notice that the serial number on the barrel isnt the same as whats on the gun....and nor is the date stamp. I guess the barrels were made at different times then the receivers were, and as such the barrels are stamped with a different serial number and may have been manufactured in any year before or after the receiver was made. If the receiver has a date stamp, thats considered the date of manufacture. Some earlier Franchi's didnt have date stamps on the receiver, so you need to refer to the stamp on the barrel.

Date codes using roman numberals are as follows;
I - 1945
II - 1946
III - 1947
IV - 1948
V - 1949
VI - 1950
VII - 1951
VIII - 1952
IX - 1953
X - 1954
XI - 1955
XII - 1956
XIII - 1957
XIV - 1958
XV - 1959
XVI - 1960
XVII - 1961
XVIII - 1962
XIX - 1963
XX - 1964
XXI - 1965
XXII - 1966
XXIII - 1967
XXIV - 1968
XXV - 1969
XXVI - 1970
XXVII - 1971
XXVIII - 1972
XXIX - 1973
### - 1974
 
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here are the rest of the codes

AA - 1975 BA - 1991 CB - 2007
AB - 1976 BB - 1992 CC - 2008
AC - 1977 BC - 1993 CD - 2009
AD - 1978 BD - 1994 CF - 2010
AE - 1979 BF - 1995 CH - 2011
AF - 1980 BH - 1996 CI - 2012
AH - 1981 BI - 1997 CL - 2013
AI - 1982 BL - 1998 CM - 2014
AL - 1983 BM - 1999
AM - 1984 BN - 2000
AN - 1985 BP - 2001
AO - 1986 BS - 2002
AS - 1987 BT - 2003
AT - 1988 BU - 2004
AU - 1989 BZ - 2005
AZ - 1990 CA - 2006
 
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